Pearce: Under-21 post must be full-time

By IAN LADYMAN

Last updated at 09:01 06 February 2007

Stuart Pearce took his first training session as the England Under-21 team's temporary coach on Monday — then insisted the post should be full-time.

Currently only in charge for Tuesday night's friendly against Spain at Derby's Pride Park and the two-week European Championship in Holland in June, Pearce will be the FA's top candidate for the long-term role if he can improve on poor recent showings in the tournament.

That prospect would appear unlikely considering Manchester City only allowed their manager to fill in on a temporary basis in return for a guarantee from Pearce that he would not apply for the job beyond this summer.

But there are few figures in the game more passionate about serving their country and, although Pearce re-iterated that City remain his priority, he stressed that the Under-21s job needs to be turned into a permanent post.

Pearce said: "I think it's a great honour to this job and I think it should be done full-time.

It is absolutely vital to bring these players in and get them into the full squad, and I think come the summer it's absolutely vital that the Football Association puts somebody in charge on a full-time basis.

"That's only my personal view on it and whether that happens or not is not in my hands. But I think it should be a full-time post and it should be a post that is very, very coveted."

Pearce's view may not be shared by everybody at the FA, however, especially given that the last time full-time coach David Platt could not bring the Under 21s a sustained period of success.

Nevertheless he may have been speaking with the benefit of inside knowledge as regards the FA's intentions, given that coach Steve McClaren had suggested earlier in the day that there will be a full-time appointment at the end of the summer.

McClaren said: "The Under-21s is a very important job. Eventually it should become - and will become - a full-time post."

Whether Pearce impresses enough over the coming weeks and months to be considered for the job will become clear. Whether he would want it or not is harder to gauge.

Quite correctly he was at pains to stress yesterday just how committed he remains to City. However, those who know him at his club also know just how ambitious he is when it comes to England.

Pearce said: "I love working for Manchester City, to be honest with you. I am very flattered and honoured to have this opportunity through the summer but between now and the summer my full focus is Manchester City.

"When the season finishes I will concentrate fully on trying to win a trophy for England and then from that moment on I will be back at Manchester City.

"It is a club that I love, the supporters have been good to me, the board of directors have shown confidence in me and I enjoy working there."

After meeting up with the squad on Sunday evening, Pearce spent two hours working with England's young players at Derby's training ground on Monday morning.

Fresh from City's defeat to Reading on Saturday — when Under 21 striker Leroy Lita scored twice — Pearce faced inevitable questions about his ability to carry out two jobs and is aware that it is an issue that will become a theme of his short reign.

But he remains as steadfast as a manager as he was as a player and his self-belief is largely unshakeable. "When you talk about the time constraints of doing this job you have to understand that there were six players available to train at Manchester City this morning," he explained.

"We have 10 away on international duty and then some injuries. My assistant had to get four players from the academy just to enable them to have some kind of training session.

"When you look at things in that perspective, there will be very little going on at City or indeed any other Premiership club for the first half of this week. I am totally convinced this can work."

Told by his Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough that he was not good enough for international football, Pearce can reflect today that one of the game's greats did occasionally get things wrong.

Clough's left-back not only won 78 caps for England but now he is a coach, too. So how will his young charges be inspired by their new coach's contribution to defining moments in English football such as Italia '90 and Euro '96.

"The most frightening thing for me is that these players were about four years old when I was playing in Italia '90," smiled Pearce. "They don't remember that. They just know me as the manager of Manchester City.

"But if they can take something from the fact that I played for my country and use that as a positive then that's great."